V. I. Lenin

The Domestic and Foreign Situation
of the Republic

Report Delivered To The Moscow Conference
of The R.C.P. (B.)

Newspaper Report

Delivered:12 July,1919First Published:PravdaNo. 154, July 16, 1919; Published according to thePravdatextSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 29, pages 489-493Translated:George HannaTranscription/HTML Markup:David Walters & Robert CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation License

The previous speaker spoke of the feelings of
	deep regret with which we have had to contravene our food
	policy[2]None of this, of course, is anything more than darning the
	holes of an old garment instead of acquiring a new one. But
	what we have done is right. We may recall last year, when the
	food situation was much worse’we had absolutely no food
	resources. At that time there was considerable confusion in
	our ranks because we had to retract from the principles of our
	food policy. It was thought that small concessions would lead
	to bigger ones and that a return to a socialist policy would
	be impossible. That turned out to be untrue. Difficult as the
	situation was, we got over it, and our enemies’ hopes
	were not fulfilled.

The situation today is much better than last year’s;
	we now have food resources we dared not even dream of last
	year. The territory occupied by the enemy was much greater
	last year. We have now scored big victories in the East where
	a bumper harvest is expected. Apart from that we have
	experience, and that is the main thing. Having this experience
	we are able to say with greater confidence that we shall
	overcome the difficulties that stand in our way. July is the
	worst month not only as far as food is concerned, but also
	because counter-revolution raises its head higher than
	before.

The counter-revolutionary wave inside the country, however,
	was more powerful last year than this. The activities of the
	Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had reached the highest point
	at that time. The armed struggle that they launched suddenly
	in place of their verbal support took us by surprise. The
	difficulties were immense, for they had chosen their time very
	cleverly. The Socialist-Revolutionaries hoped to play on the
	mood of the man in the street who was in despair from
	hunger. At the same time Muravyov betrayed us at the
	front. The revolt of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries was
	very quickly suppressed but there was serious wavering in the
	provinces for several days.

We now have a more correct attitude to the petty-bourgeois
	parties, due to the year’s experience. The experience of
	the revolts led by Makhno and Grigoriev and the waverings of
	the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks have shown us
	that their influence over the worker and peasant masses is
	only an apparent one. Their actual strength is nil, so that
	when we are told that Chernov at a recent meeting of the
	Council of the Right Socialist-Revolutionary Party said,
	“If not we and not today, then who else will kick out
	the Bolsheviks?” we can only say, “The nightmare
	was terrible, but God is good.” Today we can only
	express our amazement at their not being tired of repeating
	their own mistakes. Throughout two years we have been
	witnessing the complete collapse of all their dreams about
	“democracy in general”, nevertheless every one of
	their groups considers it its duty to make the experiment in
	its own way. The development of the revolution shows that
	their mistakes are being repeated and that the repetition is
	causing us countless calamities. The peasants in the East
	supported the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks
	because they did not want war and realised that the Bolsheviks
	were a sound government that would insist on their
	participating in the war. The result was that Kolchak forces
	appeared and brought countless calamities. Now that they are
	retreating they are destroying everything in their path, the
	country is completely ruined and the sufferings there are
	unimaginable, far worse than anything we are experiencing. To
	speak of Bolshevik atrocities in face of these facts requires
	all the hypocrisy of bourgeois writers.

In the Kolchak business, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and
	Mensheviks have again followed the same sanguinary political
	road as they did with Kerensky; it has brought them back to
	the starting-point and has demonstrated the falseness of all
	their coalition ideas.

The masses have now abandoned them and we are witnessing a
	revolt in Siberia in which not only workers and peasants but
	even intellectuals and kulaks are taking part. We see the
	complete collapse of Kolchak’s movement. Apparently
	every one of their mistakes must be repeated before the eyes
	of the unenlightened masses are opened. When the masses see
	that the coalition leads to reaction they come to us, battered
	and tormented but nevertheless taught and steeled by
	experience. The same may be said of all imperialists. They
	drag out the war, cause greater exhaustion and thereby merely
	strengthen in the masses a consciousness of the need for
	revolution. Difficult as the year has been, it has been useful
	because not only the leaders but even the broadest masses,
	even the peasants in the most remote holes and corners have
	had an experience that has led them to draw the same
	conclusions as we do. This gives us firm conviction in our
	victory. Without Kolchak the Siberian peasants would not have
	become convinced in a single year that they need our
	workers’ government. It took the very sad experience of
	this year to convince them of that.

It is quite possible that the Socialist-Revolutionary and
	Menshevik literary groups will die out without ever having
	understood anything about our revolution and for a long time
	will continue repeating, parrot fashion, that theirs would
	have been the best government in the world, a truly socialist
	and truly democratic government without civil war, if it had
	not been for Kolchak and the Bolsheviks; that, however, is not
	important, there have also been stubborn cranks in all
	revolutions. The important thing is that the masses who
	followed them are now leaving them. The peasant masses have
	gone over to the Bolsheviks’that is a fact. Siberia
	demonstrates this best of all. The peasants will not forget
	what they experienced under Kolchak’s government.; the
	greater the trials, the better the Bolsheviks’ lessons
	will have been learned.

We are now gaining important victories on the Eastern Front
	and these give its reason to hope that we shall have finished
	with Kolchak in the East in a few weeks. A turning point has
	been reached on the Southern Front, arid, what is more
	important, a turning-point in the temper of the peasants in
	the vicinity of the front has also been reached. These,
	incidentally, are rich peasants’middle peasants in those
	parts are like kulaks. But there has been a change in their
	mood in our favour’this is a fact that is proved by the
	return of deserters and by the armed resistance we are putting
	up. The workers living in the towns, where they are close to
	events, assimilate our ideas from conferences, speeches and
	newspapers. The peasant cannot do this, he is convinced only
	from his own experience. The peasants in the South were
	prepared to curse the Bolsheviks in words, but when Denikin
	arrived shouting about democracy (for it is not only the
	Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries that shout about it,
	the word is to be found in every line of Denikin’s
	newspaper) the peasants began to fight against him for they
	soon realised from their own experience that floggings and
	plunder lay hidden under the pretty words. The torments and
	ruination in the districts near the Southern Front are having
	the same effect as in the East’they are giving us more
	reliable gains. We have not for a moment forgotten the
	difficulties that we are experiencing, we have not forgotten
	that the greatest effort and the mobilisation of our forces
	are essential, but we can say that the result will be a more
	sound victory. The experience of the past year has shown the
	masses that today only one form of power is possible and
	necessary’the workers’ and peasants’ power
	of the Bolsheviks. That is what enables us to say with
	confidence that this difficult July will be the last difficult
	July.

A glance at the international situation only serves to
	strengthen our confidence in victory.

Forces friendly to us are growing up in all hostile
	states. Take the small countries’Finland, Latvia,
	Poland, Rumania. All attempts to set up a coalition of the big
	and petty bourgeoisie in those countries to fight against us
	have ended in a break-down and ours turns out to be the only
	form of government possible there.

The same thing is true of big states. Take
	Germany. Immediately the Treaty of Versailles was signed a big
	revolutionary movement began. The Entente bogey has gone and
	the workers are now rising, notwithstanding all the sacrifices
	that the proletariat has made. During the past year Germany
	has had the same experience as we and Siberia have had, but in
	a somewhat different form’experience that will lead to
	the communist revolution. And what about the Entente, the
	victors? They say that victory has given them security, but no
	sooner had they signed the peace treaty than it became clear
	that in signing it they were signing their own death
	warrant. The mass movement against them is growing. That is
	why we say with confidence, taking all our experience, all
	that has happened in the past year into account, that we shall
	surmount all difficulties and that this July will be the last
	difficult July, and that next July we shall welcome the
	victory of the world Soviet republic and that victory will be
	full and complete.

[1]This conference was attended by 200
	delegates of the Moscow Party organisations. Following
	Lenin’s report the conference passed a resolution
	indicating the need to improve Party and government
	work—army, food, social security, agitation and
	propaganda work, and also cultural, educational and political
	work among workers and men of the Red Army. It was planned to
	call regular non-Party conferences of workers and Red Army
	soldiers.

[2]This refers to decisions by the Moscow
	August 24) and Petrograd (September 5, 1918) Soviets
	permitting factory and office workers to transport up to
	one-and-halfpoodsof foodstuffs (until October 1,
	1918) and the decree of the Council of People’s
	Commissars of June 30, 1919 on food procurement in Simbrisk
	Gubernia up to August 15, 1919 by workers’s and rural
	organisations of the central gubernias, etc. The Soviet
	Government was compelled to adopt these measures because of
	the grave food situation of the country.